Lost on the 'Dark Side' in Syria

The mess the West is in is apparent to all across the region: the U.S. and its allies are both ostensibly at war with head-chopping, radical Sunni forces, and in bed with them at the same time.  How could this have happened? The roots to U.S. ambivalence towards radical Sunni Islam lie primarily with the group of Neocons who formed an influential Cold-Warrior nexus around Dick Cheney, and who were obsessed with rolling-back Soviet influence in the Middle East, and in overturning the Arab socialist-nationalist states who were viewed both as Soviet clients and as threats to Israel. But America’s use of radical Sunni jihadists for their geopolitical ends was established long before.  When asked whether he regretted the CIA giving covert support to jihadists in Afghanistan 6 months prior to the 1979 Soviet intervention, Carter’s National Security Adviser, Brzezinski, said the following.